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Be Here Now review

Posted : 7 years, 4 months ago on 7 November 2016 08:54

It's the most anticipated album in the history of British discography. The numbers say: the first day of its publication, August 21, 1997, well 424,000 people went into a record store to buy "Be here now" by Oasis. "25" by Adele he did not go anywhere near. If the Beatles were "bigger than Jesus," according to the unfortunate definition of John Lennon in 1997, the band of the Gallagher brothers was "greater than God", as he said with extreme modesty Noel. But "Be here now" is the disc in which the splendid band mechanism misfires. The s'irrobustiscono arrangements and s'appesantisce step. Vanish the fabulous naturalness and lightness of the successes of the first two albums "Definitely maybe" and "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?", Replaced by a layered sound and rattling from war machine that lives on today in the deluxe that distributes 3 compact disc the original remastered, rarities and demos. It is also a "drug records", designed and produced in a turbulent period in the life of the Gallagher brothers. "The strategy of our management team," said Noel, "was to work the band at all costs. If he did not, it would fall to pieces. "
Oasis live in hyperspace, in those years, and in fact the album's story began with a holiday in Mustique, a private island in the Lesser Antilles, the goal of exhausting stays of millionaires looking for posh landscapes, from David Bowie to Nick Mason Pink Floyd, and today as well HRH Kate Middleton. There, in the villa of Mick Jagger, in early 1996 Noel Gallagher tried to force the writer's block he suffered a series of hacking demo with co-producer Owen Morris. Contained in the third CD of this new edition, the Mustique specimens relative to the pieces of the album and b-sides are the highlight of the reprint, at least from the point of view of the rarity of the same, and allow us to peek if not birth, at least the first steps taken by the songs. However, this is demo: finished better than others that are heard in deluxe editions, actual performance-driving, but they are still specimens with all the instruments played by Noel except in "Fade in-out" where the slide guitar c 'it is another celebrity who was enjoying the Mustique with Kate Moss, actor Johnny Depp. There is also a small yellow: "Trip inside (Be here now)" in the American version, at least that of iTunes, is a demo of the title track, an instrumental and European sides of least account.
The second disc contains the b-side (not all, however: there is for example the cover of "Heroes") and curiosities related to the album including a new mix of the single "D'you know what I mean" done by Noel Gallagher. "As the years passed," the guitarist says, "I started to realize that the songs of 'Be here now' were too long ... too long! Someone (I forget who) had the idea to recast the whole album for posterity. We just finished the first song, then we did not give anything and we dropped. " Among the debut of "My big mouth" at Knebworth and a piece like "Flashbax" that an attack on the Counting Crows (really), the second CD of the album provides confirmation on the nature and quality of the sides B era type " Stay young "or" Going nowhere ", but no real surprise. And the version of "Help" by the Beatles, where Noel playing at home, is not memorable. Among the curiosities, a "Setting Sun" by The Chemical Brothers for voice and guitar version recorded in July 1997 at Radio Deejay. If nothing else, in "The Hunger" is no exact definition of fame and debauchery, for those exact circumstances it means: "Do you laugh while you're sitting there you will drink champagne, and the others laugh at your despair while snort cocaine. "


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Oasis: Beyond Wonderwall

Posted : 8 years, 7 months ago on 11 August 2015 06:23

Oh boy, Be Here Now, talk about a decisive album. I’ll cut to the chase and say that I am a lover of Be Here Now and considering it to be one of my favourite albums of all time. The album cover symbolises the bombastic nature of the record, and it even narcissistically has the date of its release is on the cover. The title, on the other hand, represents the arrogant nature of Oasis at the time whether or not that was intentional; it’s like Oasis are instructing that you are going to be here now! If the first two albums were about trying to achieve your dreams, then Be Here Now was about living those dreams. The sound of a band high on coke and on top of the world, a real powerhouse of an album with everything turned up to 11.

 

Be Here Now is not Morning Glory. I don’t want Be Here Now to sound like Morning Glory, we had Morning Glory and now this is something different. Unlike the first two albums, the songs on Be Here Now don’t have as many hooks and are not instantly catchy; Be Here Now is a dirtier, meaner record. When I first listened to the album I didn’t instantly latch onto it and took me a few listens to grow on me, unlike the first two albums which were love on first listen.

 

The opening track D’You What I Mean? Is 7 minutes and 42 seconds long. Before the vocals even begin we get a minute comprised of helicopter and Morse code sound effects with the final minute of the song just being guitar feedback; that’s the levels of bombastic indulgence we’re talking about here. This song is not radio friendly yet it was the album’s lead single and went to number 1 on the UK charts; only Oasis had the clout to get a song like this to be a single Yet they still even outdone D’You What I Mean?  with All Around the World, an epic all-devouring song which lasts for a whopping 9 and a half minutes, and it too was a UK number 1; the longest song in length to ever do so. It’s such a monstrous, epic song; a real celebration of everything Oasis had achieved up until that point.

 

I disagree with the notion that the B-sides from the Be Here Now era should have been included on the album. They’re great songs but they’re more reminiscent of Morning Glory and don’t match the over the top nature of Be Here Now. But aside from the over the top arena rockers of celebration (God knows just how many guitar tracks are on My Big Mouth and It’s Gettin’ Better Man!!), we do get two more downbeat, emotional songs in the form of Stand By Me and Don’t Go Away; the latter of which being one of Oasis’ biggest tearjerkers.

 

No band could make Be Here Now today, no one would have the clout to do so. But not Oasis back then; I can imagine a record label executive asking the band does All Around the World have to be 9 and a half minutes long, and them replying “Yes if f**king does!”. When was the last time a band made an album that had the same “we’re on top of the world” spirit as that of Be Here Now? I’ve never been a fan of the post-millennium music scene, and for me personally, 1997 is the last year in which there was a number of high profile album releases which I loved. The final sound effect on the album of a door shutting on the All Around the World Reprise signals the end of the Brit-pop era and the end of Oasis’ golden age.

 

Critics praised Be Here Now on its initial release, only later to detract their praises. The complete opposite to what happened to Morning Glory, which received mixed reviews on initial release and later went on to receive acclaim. Are people just conformist drones who listened to Oasis because it was the “cool” thing to do and backlashed against the band when Be Here Now turned out not to be another Morning Glory; or perhaps I’m just in a minority opinion who think this album is amazing? Who knows? Regardless, for me Definitely Maybe, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? and Be Here Now will always be the holy trinity of Oasis albums. Be Here Now, I salute you!

 

Be Here Now Era B-Sides and Rarities


As I stated before, the b-sides for the Be Here Now were more reminiscent of the Morning Glory era. There are not as many b-sides during the Be Here Now era, but all of them were good. Throughout their entire 90’s output, there are only two Oasis songs I don’t like (Hey Now! and Be Here Now); the band almost literally had no filler. I wonder if the backlash Be Here Now received prevented the album’s fourth single Don’t Go Away (which ended up only getting released in Japan) from having any new songs. (I Got) The Fever is one of my absolute favourite Oasis songs; what a choon! While it’s not the most lyrically significant Oasis song, but it’s one seriously uplifting jam. The band’s cover of David Bowie’s Heros is also superb; you can’t top the original but this is a dam fine cover. Now when will the deluxe edition of Be Here Now be here now?



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